For 11-year-old Eli Priwer, the biggest difference between his hometown of Redwood City and his new residence in Vienna is the castles.

"In America we don't have castles, so that's pretty amazing," he said. "It is pretty cool, being across the world."

Eli was recently accepted into the Vienna Boys Choir, begun by Emperor Maximilian I in 1498 as his personal traveling entertainment. It is often considered the most prestigious boys choir in the world, and since its separation from the government in 1926, it has gone on more than 1,000 tours in more than 100 countries and given more than 27,000 concerts.

"We're still stunned that our little Eli is off in Vienna singing," said parent Cynthia Phillips, a planetary geologist at the Seti Institute. "It's hard to conceptualize it."

Eli comes from a musical family. His parent Shana Priwer played piano since she was in kindergarten and attended Julliard for percussion. Phillips played viola growing up and sang in college. Priwer and Phillips have five children and start them all on piano at age 4 before having them choose another instrument in second grade.

"He used to wander around the house singing," Phillips said. "It was obvious from the beginning. He's very musical. It's not just mechanical - it's not just notes."

'Great desire to learn'

As a result, Eli joined Ragazzi, a boys choir in Redwood City that he sang in from ages 6 to 11 before he left for Vienna.

"He was a very quiet boy with the best manners and a great desire to learn and sing," said Irene Kwok, the primary choir director of Ragazzi at the time. "I gave him a solo part, and everyone else was humming a different tune. I worked with him with the German, the sound, the tone. This little boy was 6, and he would stay behind to work with me."

When his parents realized that singing was their son's passion, they decided to support him by any means necessary.

"We thought, 'What is the best way we can nurture it?' " said Shana Priwer, who does software testing. "The only thing that came to me was that he should audition for the best boys choir in the world."

Eli auditioned in third grade when the Vienna choir was in the Bay Area on tour. "We would have offered him a spot in fourth grade, but it's difficult when you've got someone on the other side of the planet," said Tina Breckwoldt, the choir's dramaturge.

At that time, neither Eli nor his parents were ready for him to leave for Vienna.

"He's really close to us," Shana Priwer said. "He's really close to his brothers and sisters." However, when Eli was offered a spot at the choir's camp, which would serve as an extended audition, he could no longer turn down the opportunity.

"We thought about it for a while, and in sixth grade we decided to take the chance," Eli said. "I thought it would be a pretty good chance to learn more music and get better at singing."

Despite the heavy financial burden, his parents decided that it was worth the hardship.

"It's one of those opportunities where we or he or both would really regret not doing it," Phillips said. "But we're hitting up everyone we know for frequent flier miles." They have also set up a website so that anyone interested can help support Eli's time in Vienna.

Extended audition

Eli left his family in late July to join the Vienna Boys Choir at its annual camp by Lake Wörthersee in southern Austria, a six-hour train ride from Vienna.

"Every year we lose about a fourth of the boys of the choir and we have a fourth of the boys coming in new," Breckwoldt said. "We have some down time and a relaxing environment for them to become a group. It's like summer camp, and the theme is singing. That's how you become a team."

After camp, Eli was invited to become a full member of the choir. Most recently, he and other boys traveled around Italy and Austria to shoot several songs for the Vienna Boys Choir's first Christmas film, directed by Curt Faudon.

For Eli, the highlight of the trip was singing in an ice cave near Salzburg, Austria. "It's up on the slope of a mountain, and you know once you get in it, you walk up stairs and you see huge ice formations," he said. "We filmed in front of two of the ice formations. It was the biggest ice cave in the world. It was all natural, which was pretty cool."

After filming, Eli joined the rest of the choir at the Augartenpalais, a baroque palace and former imperial hunting lodge in Vienna where the 100 or so choir members live, learn, sing and play.

"There's a lot of rooms, and it's a pretty nice place, especially the gardens," Eli said.

Learning German

The school year has just begun, and Eli says that school in Austria isn't unlike school in Redwood City, "except everything is in German." Although Eli took an online German course before arriving, he knows only a few phrases, including, "What is your name?" and, "I am a boy."

Eli doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up - there are too many choices. "I'm toying with either being a businessman or a singer. Cause you get to create stuff, and inventions. But I like singing."